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Drood (Paperback)

Staff Reviews

Drood by Dan Simmons, a dark compelling tale that blends real
events from Charles Dickens life with the story of his unfinished manuscript, The
Mystery of Edwin Drood. Wilkie
Collins acts as narrator as his friend, Charles Dickens, slips ever further
into the dark side of London life after meeting the unsavory Edwin Drood in the
aftermath of a train wreck. Opium dens,
fiends from the underworld, men with too many mistresses all take a part. The story is gripping and involves two of the
greatest talents of their day using quite a bit of real biographical detail
from their lives. There is drama and
suspense, starting with the very real train wreck. This is a page turner!

— Deon Stonehouse

Description

On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever.

Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying?

Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best.

About the Author

Dan Simmons is the award-winning author of several novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Olympos and The Terror. He lives in Colorado.

Praise For…

"A dazzling journey through a crooked, gaslit labyrinth and a tenebrous portraiture of the tortured minotaurs that dwell within. Genius is the true mystery, and at its edge--the abyss."

" A spellbinding tale, bold and sly and so steeped in the filigree of this era that it seems to have been written just after a séance during which both Dickens and Wilkie Collins were present." -Chicago Tribune

"Simmons has captured to a tee the high style of late Victorian melodrama: the story line is consistently engrossing and utterly unpredictable. This rip-roaring adventure is a true page-turner." -Library Journal